The Mets have one very over-rated player. Omar Mimaya. His infatuation with older, high risk players has now cost the Mets two years in a row. Anyone remember that El Duke was a Mets starting five player at the beginning of the year and Moises Alou there everyday Left Fielder.

And don't forget the bull pen. Wagner wilted last year in the stretch and it shouldn't have surprised anyone that he wilted again, this time for good as far as the Mets are concerned. Then there is the strange case of a multi-year pact for Castillo that hog tied the METS to second base because no one wanted to admit the 4 year twenty-million contract was money down the drain.

The one find they should keep in Jerry Manuel. Manager of the year in the hearts of Mets fans, this one anyway. They also have a core that should get better. But the bull pen which blew more saves and lost omre 9 inning leads that any other team must be revamped. The issue is whether Mimaya can do it?

I have always thought that so much of the vitriol I* se in life is an adolescent working out of unresolved problems with one's parents. The blogspere and particularly the reaction to the failed bailout is an example. The invective for those attempting to sort through the financial mess created by the neocons and their George Bush puppet is truly astounding.

As many have pointed out somewhat soberly, he real issue here is availability of credit in a wide variety of circumstances. Among the items that will be seriously impacted are not only home loans, but student loans, appliance loans (like refrigerators) and auto loans. Good some of are oedipal retards exclaim. I don't need a new car or refrigerator and I (a) dropped of of college because some geeky professors never saw my brilliance or (b) I got my student loans, up yours.

Then there is the small question of the real pay-day loans. The ones by small businesses needed to make pay roll. Bye-bye pay checks. Too freaking bad you say.

Then again, the stock market lost more value Monday then the total cost of the bailout. If you don't if you have an IRA or a 401K retirement account, who cares?

We are told by scripture that we are brothers keeper. Those who selfishly pursue ideological or political goals now and sink this economy into a recession cum depression, don't care about their brother or the their sister. My God, am I being judgmental?

I did not experience the depression although my family was steeped in its lore as I grew-up. For those relishing in the defeat of their parents (be it McCain or Pelosi) I suggest a crash course on what the depression was really about. Here's some suggestions for your viewing: "O Brother Where art Thou," "Grapes of Wrath," “Sullivan's Travels,” “Night of the Hunter,” and "Sea Biscuit." They are all entertaining but in the background is a picture of what a Depression era America is like. Forget the horse race in Sea Biscuit and concentrate on what happened to the jockey's family.

Is the bailout package the very best of solutions? Hardly. But it’s a step forward. I am reminded of the old Vietnam slogan: When your up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember you were their to drain the swamp.

As for the movies, I am sure there are better choices, these are off the top of my head. Here's my message: stop getting even with your parents and grow-up. We are facing problems that the big kids have to solve.

http:johnklotz.blogspot.com

Like gushymoderate, I was pessimistic about my sides performance until the polls came in. Sure Biden appealed to me (as did Barack O) but what about all them out there. I thought that folksy stuff might really work ala Regan.

But the American public seems so far to be made of sterner stuff - at least the Independents being polled.

Perhaps it was Biden's penultimate summation of why McCain is not a maverick on things that count in people's lives.

But the real total, out of this world irony is the Prime Minister of Spain thing. I have little doubt that when McCain said that he would not meet with the Jose Zapatero he had misspoke, confusing him with someone else in Latin America. But his campaign couldn't admit that he was confuse so it gutted it out by claiming that McCain meant ever word he said.

Now, they're stuck. Obama and Biden can hammer McCain on his refusal to meet with the Prime Minister of a country with troops in Afghanistan. It's like the Battle of Chicamauga where the Union General issued a confused order that opened up a gap in the Union center into which the Rebs poured. Let's hear more about the refusal of of McCain to meet with the leader of a NATO ally whose country was the subject of the second deadliest terrorist attack.

Gotcha!!!!

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com

I don't think I can add one word to the post by MacK that analyzes the present state of the Republican Party - reduced to screaming political obscenities in an airport hangar by a candidate with a tenuous grip on reality.

I only wish that there was someway to communicate my admiration for his work, directly.

http://johnklotz.blogspot.com